1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a musical instrument. More particularly, it relates to a musical instrument which may be described as a tuned bell harmonic musical instrument. Still more specifically, the invention relates to a tuned bell harmonic musical instrument that has a plurality of vibrating tongues in the dome of the bell that causes various notes and harmonics to be generated when the tongues or bell are struck with a stick, a mallet or similar device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bells and singing bowls are well known in the art. See, for example, the discussion of singing bowls in the Wickipedia encyclopedia on the Internet. i.e. the discussion presented in www.en.wikipedia.org/Singing_Bowl. Bells and singing bowls typically have a tuned low fundamental note emanating from the lip or rim of the bell. Higher frequency supporting harmonic tones in the octaves, 2nds, 3rds, 4th, and 5th are used to add a more musical tone to the bell. These naturally occurring higher supporting harmonics are created by faster vibrations in the middle and top regions of the bell. Controlling the strength and tuning of these harmonics is very difficult to do. Typically this is done with changes to metal composition, thickness, bell length, width and profile. Adjusting one area can affect the tones in other areas making for a complicated and labor intensive process. Once a shape is finalized, the bell is typically cast in bronze. This is an expensive process.
Another method of creating musical tones is with vibrating tongues. If a long three sided rectangular shaped tongue is cut out of sheet steel, for example, it can be struck toward the tip and will vibrate creating a musical tone. The size of the tongue can be made smaller to produce higher tones, and larger to produce lower tones. The thickness, composition, shape and annealing of the metal being used will produce a range of notes possible.
Musical instruments with tongues are also known in the art. These are sometimes called tongue drums. Some are made of low carbon steel, and are called steel tongue drums. Such drums can be purchased from the Percussive Devices Company, www.percussivedevices.com and the Milltone company, which sells tunable steel tongue drums. Another seller of steel tongue drums is the RockCreek company, www.rockcreeksteeldrums.com. These drums are totally enclosed or come with a small opened sound port. . . When the tongues are struck, individual notes are heard. The body of the drum does not ring on its own.
The inventor can find no patent literature pertaining to steel tongue drums.
The primary disadvantage of the steel tongue drums presently on the market is that the sound that is generated by the tongues is not supported with ringing from the body of the drum, as would be the case if a bell were to be struck. The present invention is a tuned bell harmonic musical instrument that enables harmonic sounds to be achieved using tongues in the dome of the bell. The instrument is completely open at the bottom, which enables a bell tone to be achieved when tongues on the dome are struck.